


Confidential Memorandum M1995-62442-867-8

by PrettyPinkCupcake



Series: SOW Party Memoranda and related documents (Rigel Black Chronicles) [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Rigel Black Chronicles - murkybluematter
Genre: Department of Mysteries Memorandum, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, Gen, Inspired by The Rigel Black Chronicles, Riddle's Arithmancy Matching Algorithm, Ruse Reveal, Set after chapter 12 in Futile Facade, murkybluematter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 05:00:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26799970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrettyPinkCupcake/pseuds/PrettyPinkCupcake
Summary: The Department of Mysteries has applied the Arithmancy Matching Algorithm to Dark Purebloood Heirs at the greatest risk of the Fade.The Department found discrepancies between the Algorithm's results and known facts about Halfblood Heiress Harriet Potter.  Further investigation was recommended.But just what did the Department's further investigation find?
Series: SOW Party Memoranda and related documents (Rigel Black Chronicles) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1954477
Comments: 12
Kudos: 76
Collections: Rigel Black Chronicles Appreciation





	Confidential Memorandum M1995-62442-867-8

**Author's Note:**

> This will only make sense to fans of murkybluematter's Pureblood Pretense, Serpentine Subterfuge, Ambiguous Artifice and the Futile Facade, as it relates to key plot points in the Futile Facade, namely Riddle's Arithmancy Algorithm to match Pureblood Heirs to optimum candidates.
> 
> If you haven't read these works, you've missed something significant in the world of Harry Potter FanFiction, so what are you waiting for? Read them!
> 
> This will also make a lot more sense if you read my earlier work, Confidential Memorandum M1995-62442-867-7.

**Confidential Memorandum M1995-62442-867-8**

_ Protected by the For-Your-Eyes-Only Charm _

**To** : Lord Riddle, Leader of the SOW Party

**From** : Augustus Rookwood, Head Unspeakable, Department of Mysteries

**Date** : 17 May 1995

**Issue** : _Resolution of discrepancies arising from the application of the Arithmancy Matching Algorithm (the Algorithm)_

* * *

**Key findings**

  * There are no deficiencies with the Department’s experimental divination ritual that populates the Algorithm. Results using the ritual are identical to results using manually entered data where the manually entered data has been verified.
  * Recorded information about Arcturus Rigel Black and Harriet Potter is incorrect.

* * *




**Background**

Confidential Memorandum M1995-62442-867-7 reported on the findings of the Arithmancy Matching Algorithm (the Algorithm). The Algorithm was to determine the optimal pairings for the next generation of SOW Party Dark Pureblood Heirs and Heiresses. 

The Department had developed an experimental divination ritual to incorporate the required data directly into the Algorithm. This increased the accuracy of results where an individual’s input variables were unknown or unavailable. The efficacy of the ritual was determined by comparing ritually generated results with manually generated results based on known data. 

The ritually generated results involving Heir Black and Heiress Potter were not as expected, and deviated significantly from manually derived results using known data. Pairings with Heiress Potter were more powerful when the ritual was used; pairings with Heir Black less powerful. 

This suggests that either there are deficiencies with the divination ritual or the known data for Black and Potter is incorrect.

* * *

**Current Position**

Further investigation, as recommended, was undertaken by top analysts and researchers within the Department. 

_Methodology_

Four Pureblood Heirs and Heiresses (Bulstrode, Lestrange, Malfoy, and Parkinson) were chosen as control subjects. The Department obtained the requisite permissions and confirmed the veracity of each individual’s input variable data with the relevant data custodians. Using both methodologies (ritual divination and manual data entry), the Algorithm was applied to pairings of the control subjects. 

The Algorithm was then reapplied to pairings of the control subjects using knowingly incorrect manually entered data. Input variables that were altered included the magical power level of the subject, the subject’s age and the subject’s gender.

The accuracy of the known information about Black and Potter was investigated. This was more problematic. Discreet enquiries of the American Institute of Magic (AIM) reconfirmed that Harriet Potter’s magical output was rated as “yellow-green” (i.e. average).

Hogwarts privacy policies prevented the inclusion of accurately assessed power levels for Heir Black, forcing reliance on estimates based on Black’s observed and previously reported performance. Two levels were considered: indigo (lord level), and violet (lord level). 

The Algorithm was then applied to pairings of Black, Potter and the control subjects using different data sets (known and verified data, knowingly incorrect data, and in the case of Black, the two different power level estimates) and the different methodologies (ritual divination and manual data entry).

_Findings_

The detail of the results can be provided upon request, but in summary:

  * Without exception, application of the Algorithm using knowingly incorrect data delivered significant and substantially different results to the results generated using the ritually derived input variables. 
  * The different methodologies did not yield different results when applied to pairings of the control subjects (Bulstrode, Lestrange, Malfoy and Parkinson) using verified data. 
  * All the manually entered results involving Black and Potter differed significantly to the ritually derived results, particularly the results which used the higher level (violet) as the estimate for Black’s power level.

* * *




**Comment**

Obtaining permission for data sharing and confirming the required data was easiest from the Dark Pureblood Heirs and Heiresses (the control subjects). 

_ The similarity between the results derived from the different methodologies for the control subjects confirms the Department’s confidence that the experimental divination ritual functions as intended and is not in any way deficient. _

The Department’s ability to effectively investigate was severely hampered by Headmaster Dumbledore. Dumbledore has instituted a policy that guards the confidentiality of a Hogwarts student’s academic and magical performance from third parties unless parental permission is provided. 

Further, the Headmaster’s magical enforcement of the new policy means that faculty privy to any such confidential information are magically prevented from disclosing such information without the requisite parental permission. 

While Lord Black appeared surprised that his Heir’s magical output could be extraordinary, he vociferously refused permission for Hogwarts to supply the requested information to the Department. 

It was not entirely unexpected that Black’s ritually generated results deviated from the manually entered results, given that verified data was unavailable and known estimates were instead used. What is unexpected (given Black’s observed and anecdotal power levels) is that it was the lower estimate of power levels that generated the results closest to the ritually derived results.

Thankfully, AIM did not have such restrictive policies applying to its students, and information about Potter was not unavailable. However, Potter’s results varied significantly and substantially depending on the methodology used.

While input variables pertaining to magical ancestry are by definition limited for Halfbloods (as they have a considerable number of non-magical ancestors), the previous study did not show any significant difference arising from applying the different methodologies to the other Halfbloods in the study.

It is not believed that this alone would have been sufficient to result in such a significant difference between the manually entered and ritually generated Algorithm results such that the ritually derived application of the Algorithm predicts that Potter’s offspring would be so much more powerful than either of their progenitors. 

It is possible that AIM had incorrectly measured Potter’s power levels. None of the other Halfbloods included in the first study had been students at AIM, so it is not possible to compare results to see if AIM has a history of delivering results that do not match. 

_ The only way for such significant differences between the results derived from the different methodologies is for the recorded information about Heir Arcturus Black and Heiress Harriet Potter to be incorrect. _

* * *

**Recommendation**

For noting.

\- - - - - - -

For noting?!? Again?!? Really?!?

Riddle snorted. What a complete waste of time this investigation, this memorandum, was. It was so pathetic it wasn’t even worth getting angry over. 

Rookwood really was being quite useless. Unimaginative. Or both. If Rookwood was the best the Department of Mysteries had to offer (and sadly, Riddle knew that he was), no wonder Wizarding Britain was in the decline it was in.

This was little more than a butt covering exercise. Designed to shift blame, not get real answers. There’s nothing wrong with the Department’s Algorithm. The school that teaches lesser bloods can’t even measure magical power levels properly. And it's all Dumbledore’s fault with his privacy restrictions that they can’t get accurate data about Black. 

Privately Riddle had to take his hat off to Dumbledore for Hogwarts’ privacy policy. As much as he despised the man, not only was this a clever political ploy on Dumbledore’s part, but it was also a very clever bit of magic. 

Riddle himself had asked Severus about Black’s magical power level when discussing the boy’s nomination for the tournament, and he’d been quite unhappy when he witnessed Severus’s inability to be forthcoming with the information. 

Riddle knew Severus was an accomplished Master of the Mind Arts, but he himself was both a Master of the Mind Arts, and a more powerful wizard than Severus; he knew that Severus was telling him the truth when he said he literally couldn’t provide the data his Lord wanted.

But the failure to get accurate information about Black didn’t explain why the pairings with Black generated less powerful offspring than expected. Riddle had personally observed Black’s powerful magic the previous year when the boy had been unable to control his magic without a suppressor. The boy  _ was _ powerful, there was no doubt about that.

But Rookwood didn’t seem to care about the inconsistency, or be interested in the reason behind it..

Similarly, the rather weak suggestion that AIM incorrectly measured Potter’s power levels didn’t explain why Potter’s predicted offspring would always be so powerful. It wasn’t when she was paired with a particular Pureblood; powerful offspring were predicted with all her pairings.

It was more than just a simple error of measurement; the data had to be incorrect by at least one order of magnitude, if not several orders of magnitude, or the results simply did not make sense. 

What a pity Rookwood’s divination ritual couldn’t be used to divine the individual input variables and instead fed the data directly into the Algorithm. Damn Dumbledore and his magical privacy protections. 

Why hadn’t Rookwood tried to reverse engineer the input variables? At least that way they might have been able to work out exactly where the Black and Potter data was incorrect.

It was almost ironic that Potter’s predicted offspring were the magical powerhouses he had expected Black to produce, and vice versa. 

Riddle idly wondered what would happen if the supposedly known input variables they had for Black were used for Potter, with Potter’s used for Black…

...

No.

...

A vase shattered.

…

It couldn’t be.

…

An ornamental mirror burst into smithereens.

…

NO.

...

A second vase detonated. A third. A fourth. A fifth. 

...

Those BRATS. They wouldn’t DARE.

...

A bookcase exploded.

...

NO! IT COULDN’T BE.

...

The window - no, the entire wall - was blasted outwards with the force of Riddle’s magic. 

His desk, the remaining bookshelves, the lounge, all the chairs but the one he was sitting in, anything and everything in the room exploded until all that remained was rubble.

The elves in Riddle Manor were more than accustomed to their master’s temper - and their subsequent duty to clean up afterwards. But this was more than they had seen before. 

Riddle’s curses were incoherent hisses.

He did not like being taken for a fool. And certainly not by a pair of  _ teenagers _ .

But it was as plain as the nose on Severus’s face. 

Known information about Black and Potter was incorrect. Potter had to be more powerful than the AIM data suggested for the Algorithm to generate those results. Black had to be less powerful - but he’d seen how powerful Rigel’s uncontrolled magic was.

Heiress Harriet Potter - the teenager who developed a new methodology for imbuing potions, a methodology that the boffins in the Department of Mysteries, Augustus Rookwood included, still could not get their heads around - had swapped places with her cousin, Arcturus Rigel Black, to attend Hogwarts.

She was the powerful one. A Halfblood. An ingenious Halfblood  _ girl _ .

Rookwood couldn’t possibly imagine the ruse. He’s too close minded. Unable to see beyond the status quo. Unable to see the bigger picture.

But Riddle could. 

He could imagine the drive, the passion, the desperation, the brilliance… Hadn’t he said that Rigel’s performance in the dueling task had been incandescent?

And with hindsight, it made sense.

That time at the Parkinson’s gala…

They’d both been suspicious, then, Black and Potter. If only he’d followed up with Ollivander about the pair supposedly using the other’s wand to heal -  _ heal _ \- not just the simple magic of levitation, but the complicated magic of healing. 

And then there was Potter’s aura. It hadn’t changed that night, even after she’d expended a large amount of magic on healing Tiberius Ogden. Black had been ravenous, but Potter appeared unaffected.

He’d known at the time it didn’t make sense, but other matters - Pettigrew, another debacle, he remembered with a grimace - had taken priority at the time over a pair of thirteen year olds.

And the other oddities. 

Riddle’s inability to cower Rigel by threatening Potter. 

A Black Parselmouth, a gift that ran through the Peverell, Potter and Gaunt lines, not the Black family. 

The prodigious talent for potions that both children apparently possessed. 

The request to open Hogwarts to Muggleborns and Halfbloods.

The Vow to stop blood status discrimination...

Riddle laughed hysterically, the room in complete and utter shambles around in him

This could ruin everything. 

It was a truly brilliant ploy - if only it didn’t threaten everything he’d worked so hard for these many years. 

He could see why the child had been sorted into Slytherin. That House had rarely seen that level of ambition and cunning.

There was no doubt that Rigel Black - no, Halfblood  _ Harriet Potter _ \- would win the tournament. 

Riddle’s tournament. His True Tri Wizard Tournament that would once and for all answer the question of blood purity.

And Riddle only had himself to blame. The child had refused to enter the tournament; had only entered under immense pressure from Riddle.

This could ruin everything.  _ IF  _ it got out.

But Harriet Potter, Arcturus Black, neither of them would want this to get out. The girl was committing blood identity theft. That’s a serious crime for a Halfblood. A slap on the wrist and a fine for her Pureblood cousin, but Azkaban or the Dementor’s Kiss for the girl. 

No, they will not want this to get out. It would destroy not only their dreams, but their family. Auror Potter’s position would be untenable. He’d be forced to resign. Lily Potter would be unemployable, and the little girl would suffer her older sister’s shame. Even Sirius Black, shameless though he may appear, would suffer.

He briefly wonders if Severus knows, then rapidly discards that idea. 

Severus would not cross Riddle. Riddle knows that Severus is not a true believer in the SOW Party; that he has always been a reluctant member. But Severus is a realist, and a Halfblood; he also would face serious punishment for aiding and abetting blood identity theft. 

Yes. He can work with this. It might not be what he intended when he envisaged the tournament, but he can work with this. 

The girl has more to lose than he does. She will have to do what he wants. 

He was Lord Riddle, Leader of the SOW Party. 

Nothing, especially not a Halfblood teenage girl, will stop his plans.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> (And a big thanks to Tsume_Yuki, whose comments on the earlier memorandum inspired me to figure out what would happen if the Department of Mysteries did investigate the discrepancies.)


End file.
